The Question: A seabird showed up every day to circle our sailboat 200-300 miles northeast of the Bahamas. One day there were 3 of them, but most days there was just one. It looked ‘gull-like’ and was very white with striking black trim around the trailing edge of his wing feathers. The tail is [...]
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An encounter With Beavers
I spend most of the summer on a small lake in central Massachusetts. The lake empties through a culvert under a road and into a large marsh through which the water flows. The marsh goes under a footbridge, and around a couple of corners and eventually spills over a large beaver dam. That there are [...]
What are these tiny oily beads in Lake Huron?
The Question: In Michigan in early July, thousands of tiny, clear, oily, bead-like things were scattered all over the beach along the water line. We were wondering if they were a natural occurrence or some kind of pollution. Submitted by: Sara, MI (The picture to the left was taken with a cell phone.) The Short [...]
What is This Eel-like Fish?
The Question: I recently I saw an eel-like fish while swimming in the sea in Rockport, MA. It looked around 3 feet (1 meter) long and was white/grey with black stripes (running from nose to tail, not vertically). It moved like an eel. We were in water that was around 3 feet (1 meter) deep, [...]
Caddisfly Home Decorating
I was snorkeling in shallow water in a small lake in central Massachusetts today, and saw an interesting creature. What caught my eye was that a small section of the sandy gravel on the lake bottom was moving. It scooted forward about an inch (2.5 cm) and stopped. Then it did it again. I picked [...]